This invention concerns the treatment of tertiary butyldiethanolamine subject to color deterioration to remove color-forming contaminants and to stabilize the amine against color formation. More particularly, it concerns a process for treating said tertiary (t-)butyldiethanolamine by vacuum distillation.
To produce t-butyldiethanolamine, two moles of ethylene oxide are usually reacted with one mole of t-butylamine. If one desires to produce t-butylaminoethanol, one mole of ethylene oxide is reacted with one mole of t-butylamine. In this latter reaction, t-butyldiethanolamine is coproduced with t-butyl- aminoethanol. The crude products of these reactions are contaminated with impurities which include water and color-forming bodies. In the production of t-butylaminoethanol, the coproduced t-butyldiethanolamine, in the past, has been discarded because there was no satisfactory method for purifying it.
There is a need for high purity/low color t-butyldiethanolamine in the chemical market. The product is used in photographic and other chemical processes as a reaction component. Previously, obtaining this product which is both chemically pure and substantially color-free in a commercially successful process has not been realized.